Thirteen workers on Tuesday filed the first complaint under a new Houston ordinance aimed at preventing companies from stealing workers' wages.

The workers, with the assistance of the nonprofit Faith and Justice Worker Center, filed documents with the city's inspector general alleging that their employer, Bradley Demolition and Construction, refused to pay them overtime. They say the company also failed to provide tax forms.

Among those filing the complaint were Erik Lopez and his three brothers. They said they often worked 80 hours a week, building highway ramps and trash landfills for various city projects.

A supervisor at Bradley Demolition "would tell me it didn't really suit him to pay me overtime," said Lopez, 30, a native of Guerrero state in Mexico, who came to Houston 14 years ago seeking work.

It was not until Lopez heard about the city's wage theft ordinance, passed in November, that he realized he had some recourse.

The ordinance bars any person or firm from renewing 46 types of city permits and licenses for five years, essentially banning it from working in Houston, if it is criminally convicted of wage theft and exhausts all appeals.

Officials say criminal convictions are rare.

The law also bars the city from hiring people or firms criminally convicted or assessed civil penalties or judgements related to wage theft, given appeals are exhausted and the judgement in favor of the worker goes unpaid.

"It really warms your heart to have all these people show up and have the opportunity to do the right thing," said the city's inspector general, Robin Curtis, whose office investigates the claims.

She said it's not only workers who are harmed by rogue employers but also small businesses who may lose out on lucrative city contracts because they pay their workers correctly, making their bids higher than those of competitors.

For Lopez, who has three U.S. citizen children, the lost pay - which he estimates to be around $40,000 - gnawed on him for years.

"I always wanted to do something about it, because it's not right," he said. "But I was afraid."

The Houston area is home to about 100 daily wage theft complaints and about $750 million in local wages are lost annually to the practice, according to statistics by the Faith and Justice Worker Center.